Variation of gynogenic ability in passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims.) accessions

Haploid induction in passion fruit via gynogenesis provides inbred lines that can be used in production of hybrid cultivars. In the present study, gynogenesis was induced in 11 hybrid lines of passion fruit from Southern Brazil. The overall goal of this experiment was to characterize the gynogenic responsiveness of 10 hybrids and a particular accession (II-10), derived from line CI-6, a highly responsive accession. The results from the gynogenic induction of 3226 ovules cultured showed significant differences among genotypes. The accession II-10 was highly responsive, showing a mean yield of 21 haploid embryos per 274 cultured ovules (7.67%). The high embryo yield of this genotype was determined by its parental particular genotype. However, the induction rate of gynogenic embryos obtained from the hybrid plant (I-20), which is derived from the responsive plant (CI-6) also produced gynogenic embryos (5.02%) and several calli lines. The choice of genotypes as donor plants and inheritance for successful gynogenesis are discussed. The haploidy (2n = 1x = 9) of gynogenic plants was confirmed by cytological analysis